Order of the day, Catholic Group's founder named a Saint (Catholic Caucus)

TOTOWA — Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of women, cares for 110 needy seniors living at a home in the borough, and to keep the home running, its 14 nuns go into the community each day to ask the public for donations. This small order was thrust into the spotlight this month when Pope Benedict XVI canonized its founder, Jeanne Jugan, on Oct. 11 at the Vatican. Thousands of Little Sisters of the Poor from more than 200 homes around the world, along with residents and volunteers, made a pilgrimage to Rome last weekend for the ceremony.

A group of 10 from St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly on Shepherd Lane — residents, volunteers and clergy — also traveled to Rome to witness Jugan's ascent into sainthood 130 years after her death. They paid for the trip using donations and by fund raising. "Just to see after so many years that she be proclaimed a saint — and that I'm witnessing it," said Sister Bernadette McCarthy, still wearing a white satin scarf with a picture of the new saint on it along with "Canonisation 11 Octobre 2009." "It's something I'll never forget."

More than 40,000 people packed St. Peter's Basilica for the three-hour ceremony in Latin, while 100,000 people watched from outside the basilica, attendees from St. Joseph's said. "Everybody clapped after Mass and shouted 'St. Jeanne Jugan! St. Jeanne Jugan!' " said St. Joseph's resident Mary Ann Madama, 84. "Finally, this day we'd prayed for had finally come," said Woodland Park resident Joann Giamonco, 68, a volunteer for Association Jeanne Jugan. St. Jeanne Jugan (1792-1879) started the Little Sisters of the Poor in France in 1839, when she housed and cared for a poor, blind widow, giving the woman her own bed to sleep in. Since then, the order has grown to 2,700 Little Sisters, who take a vow of poverty and tend to more than 13,000 senior residents from as far away as Benin, India, South Korea and Colombia.

The 14 nuns at St. Joseph's in Totowa provide health care, housing, food and spiritual guidance to impoverished elderly people in North Jersey, and live in a convent next to the home. Medicaid and Medicare pay for about 60 percent of the cost to operate St. Joseph's, said Marie Spohn, development director at St. Joseph's. The rest comes from legacy endowments and contributions from the public. "If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be able to make it," Mother Superior Gerard Marie O'Connor said. Jeanne Jugan was beatified in 1982 by Pope John Paul II after a resident in the Little Sisters home in Toulon, France, was miraculously cured of an illness. Beatification is the third-to-last step in the process of being declared a saint.

Jessie Hladik, 80, a resident of St. Joseph's, said she felt united with others at the "very special" canonization ceremony. "We knew we were all there for one person," Hladik said. "It was something we'd been waiting for for a long time." "What really struck me was all the nationalities coming together and using the language of the church [Latin]," said Dorothy Kelly, 80. During their six-day trip, the group went sightseeing around Rome, attended Mass at several basilicas, visited the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home in the city and had "pasta for lunch, pasta for dinner and pasta when we got home," said St. Joseph's resident Ellie Marmo, 84. They stayed on a campsite just outside the city.

But some said their biggest highlight was seeing a huge banner of Jeanne Jugan on the basilica as they walked through the Vatican. "I think we all got a chill," said Theresa Vittorio of Woodland Park, who volunteers with Association Jeanne Jugan. The group would like to visit Jugan's house in Brittany, France, and plans to get together with other pilgrims from the Little Sisters homes in the Bronx, Queens and Long Island for a canonization reunion.

Meanwhile, back at St. Joseph's, nuns and residents watched Jugan's canonization on TV. "It was very, very uplifting," O'Connor said. "We felt very united with them in Rome." McCarthy said she hopes the news of Jugan's canonization will spur more vocations. "We're hoping that more young women will come and join our community," she said.

The Totowa order of the Little Sisters of the Poor houses a sculpture of Jugan, who was canonized by the pope.

Mary Ann Madama, left, Sister Bernadette McCarthy and Jessie Hladik recounting their trip to Rome for St. Jeanne Jugan's canonization.

"Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of women, cares for 110 needy seniors living at a home in the borough, and to keep the home running, its 14 nuns go into the community each day to ask the public for donations"

I wish all health care was in the hands of these good Sisters!

2 posted on 11/09/2009 9:24:05 AM PST by GonzoII ("That they may be one...Father")

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